Inter Miami long shot to advance in MLS tournament after 2-1 loss to Philadelphia
Inter Miami scored one of the prettiest goals thus far in the MLS is Back Tournament, displaying the attractive, attacking style it has been promising fans since the club joined the league this season.
But as Tuesday turned into Wednesday, Miami got burned after a defensive lapse, lost 2-1 to the Philadelphia Union and remains winless four games into its inaugural season.
The loss kept Miami tied for last place in its group with New York City FC. Even with a win over New York on July 20, Miami would have a very slim chance of advancing to the Round of 16. The top two teams in each group move on, and Orlando City and Philadelphia clinched two spots from Group A with two wins (six points) apiece.
The four best third-place teams also advance in the tournament, being held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports in Orlando. But one win (three points) likely won’t be enough.
“Of course, this is not what we wanted, to lose four games, but I am encouraged by the way our team played,” Inter Miami coach Diego Alonso said. “We scored an attractive goal. We saw things we wanted to see, especially in the middle of the field and the final third. We saw players being aggressive on the attack, taking on people [one on one], making good combinations, and we dominated much of the game. But we paid for our mistakes and Philadelphia is a good, veteran team that took advantage of our mistakes.”
Well into the second half, it looked like Miami would emerge with at least a tie.
Rodolfo Pizarro had knotted the game 1-1 in the 36th minute with the style and finishing touch that make him one of the top players on the Mexican national team.
He slid between two Philly defenders to receive a perfect pass from a streaking Lewis Morgan on the counterattack, immediately back-heeled the ball back to Morgan, who sent it wide to Matias Pellegrini, who passed it to the front of the goal, where Pizarro was waiting and knocked it past Jamaican goalkeeper Andre Blake.
Pizarro was swarmed by his teammates as he did his trademark Joker face goal celebration. He had returned to the starting lineup Tuesday after sitting out the first half of the tournament opener with a slight injury.
“It’s frustrating that we haven’t gotten the results we deserve, but no team has run over us,” Pizarro said. “We are losing because of foolish mistakes. We let three points slip away. We have to work harder and try to finish the tournament on a high note and have faith because anything can happen.”
Philadelphia took the lead in the fifth minute when Kai Wagner slipped past Miami’s back line, and had another goal by Kacper Przybylko called back for offside in the 27th minute. Przybylko got a chance to celebrate again later, after scoring the game-winner in the 63rd minute on a counterattack.
“We play a sport where small margins are the difference and tonight we made a couple of mistakes and they punished us,” Miami midfielder Wil Trapp said. “We had opportunities in the attacking half to punish them and we took one of them, didn’t take others. It’s something we need to work on, concentrate on. That’s something we can control, and that’s a good thing.”
As if the loss wasn’t bad enough for Inter Miami, defender Andres Reyes picked up a second yellow card in the closing moments of the game and will have to sit out the next game. Reyes was back in the Miami starting lineup after leaving the Orlando game strapped to a stretcher following a throat injury that left him gasping for air.
Miami’s back line also saw the return of veteran Roman Torres, who served a red-card suspension in the tournament opener.
Inter Miami was desperate for its first victory after three losses by a total of three goals, including a 2-1 loss to Orlando City in last week’s tournament opener.
Philly had beaten Miami 2-1 in the preseason, won its opener over New York FC, and is considered one of the favorites to win the tournament. The tournament runs through Aug. 11 and then the plan is to play the rest of the regular season in home markets.
In other news, MLS announced there were zero positive COVID-19 results of the most recent 1,227 tests done on the 24 teams in the tournament bubble.
This story was originally published July 15, 2020 at 2:10 AM.